The present invention relates to a tape recorder and, more particularly, to a tape recorder utilizing "soft-touch" operation switches.
Various types of control buttons for a mechanical tape recorder have recently been furnished with a soft-touch operation mechanism to control tape transport functions. The soft-touch operation is performed by transporting movable members, such as a head chassis, into a predetermined position by a driving force of a motor, etc. without directly moving these members by the force of control buttons, thus decreasing the force required to depress the control buttons.
However, soft-touch operated buttons have not been highly developed as yet, and various problems remain unsolved. For example, a conventional soft-touch operation mechanism is large and involves a high power consumption, and has thus far been limited to only a large, high-quality tape deck. A strong demand exists for the development of a compact, lightweight soft-touch control mechanism with low power consumption which may be used for a battery-operated, portable, compact cassette tape recorder such as a cassette tape recorder with a radio. Furthermore, in addition to compactness, light weight, and low power consumption, a demand also exists for smooth operation of various types of movable members in a given sequence and provision of safeguards against the exhaustion of power in the batteries.
Recently, a tape recorder has appeared on the market which uses a magnet as an erase head. In this type of tape recorder, the erase head is moved, during the recording time, into contact with the tape and, during the play time, away from the tape. However, this tape recorder requires a complicated mechanism for movement of the head into and away from the tape in the record and play modes, respectively. In particular, the erase head is interlocked with the record button and play button, presenting a problem of inconvenient, "heavy touch" operation of these buttons.